Capitol Insider: School-lunch data didn't smell right

School-lunch numbers initially provided to The Dispatch by the Ohio Department of Education seemed to indicate good news: a respectable drop in child poverty.

School-lunch numbers initially provided to The Dispatch by the Ohio Department of Education seemed to indicate good news: a respectable drop in child poverty.

But when Dispatch Reporter Catherine Candisky started going through the data, she realized that districts such as Cleveland, Youngstown and several other high-poverty areas were showing zeros. Turns out the department inadvertently omitted a key file.

Once all the numbers were in, they showed that the rate has not budged in four years.

Robert L. Dilenschneider is a Columbus-area native, Ohio State University alumnus and public-relations specialist who runs a New York City firm that bears his name. He moves in powerful, well-connected circles, and he is a mainstay at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Dispatch Reporter Joe Vardon caught up with Dilenschneider last week after he spoke to OSU students on campus about career choices. Dilenschneider said, “There are a lot of people talking about John Kasich” having a big impact on the 2016 election as a vice-presidential pick.

“Think Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Florida and Ohio. Rick Perry and John Kasich,” Dilenschneider said. “I don’t know if he’d do it.”

When everyone else left a groundbreaking ceremony for an addition to Cheryl’s Cookies in Westerville last week, Kasich and JobsOhio chief John Minor stayed behind at the request of Jim McCann, CEO of the baker’s parent company.

In conjunction with the launch of his book Talk Is (Not!) Cheap: The Art of Conversation Leadership, McCann is launching a podcast of the same name with PodcastOne, said senior producer Andrew Ramsammy. The one with Kasich will kick off the Governors Series, set to air on Tuesday on PodcastOne.com.

When a new Quinnipiac Poll was released last week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald was quick to point out that his 5-point deficit matched that of a fella named John Kasich against Gov. Ted Strickland exactly four years earlier. And because Kasich went on to upset the incumbent that November, FitzGerald proclaimed his satisfaction with the status of his campaign.

The part about the 5-point polling gap from February 2010 is true enough. And the current race could be even closer, because Quinnipiac didn’t include Libertarian Charlie Earl, who is expected to bleed votes from Kasich, if anybody.

But two important factors went unsaid: Kasich had actually moved into a tie with Strickland in Quinnipiac’s poll in November 2009. The new survey is FitzGerald’s high-water mark.

The other: Kasich easily outperformed Strickland in fundraising, generating more than $5 million by the end of 2009. FitzGerald barely topped $2 million by the end of January and lags Kasich’s year-end total by more than 5 to 1.